5-23-08 CHASE SUMMARY

Today turned out slight better for me than yesterday. Jay, Jeff and I got up and ate, and then began looking at data. We couldn't believe it, but today looked better than yesterday did. We poured over data and targeted the town of Ness City which is about 80 miles north of Dodge City. We made it to Ness City about 2pm or so and waited around at a local gas station. I saw Jeff Snyder there with his team along with the phased array radar truck. I shot the bull with him for a while.

Then a guy pulled up in a yellow truck (we already have something in common) and started talking to me. He introduced himself as Mike Weiss. We talked about our yellow trucks and shot the bull for a while. I also met his chase partner Shane. They are both very nice guys and are a lot of fun to be around. After a few minutes, I looked to the west and saw towers going up fast!

I got Jay's attention and we began the chase. We headed west towards Scott City. I opted to take a dirt road north and Jay kept going west. I got into good position on the storm and began seeing a developing wall cloud. I kept heading north as this wall cloud persisted. I finally got back to pavement around Utica as the wall cloud persisted without a tornado or strong rotation. It looked good, but something was missing. I met back up with Jay and we followed it north on another dirt road. Guess what? Yep, it turned into a muddy road! We, along with every chaser and tour group was on that dirt road. Bob's road became famous that day. Anyway, it was a little hairy for a while and we decided to go east to get out of the mud. We finally worked our way around and hit pavement near a church between Ransom and WaKeeney.

We then went north and I lost Jay on some dirt roads north of I-70. I then opted to go south to catch a storm SW of Ness City. I got to Ness City and parked south of town a couple of miles. I waited for th storm to show it's ugly head. It did as I slowly went north of town for a better view. All of a sudden. RFD winds hit me as I had to blast south back to town along with a few other chasers. I almost got blown off the road at times. I estimated the winds topped 90 mph at times. I went east of town and then north on a dirt road. I took a photo of a very low contrast tornado to my north. The couplet on radar was very impressive as well.

I decided to end the chase there as it was getting dark and I was tired. I made my way up to Hays which is where Jay and Jeff was staying. Luckily Jeff made reservations for me. Almost every room in town was booked because it became a booming town of chasers. I bet the chasers doubled the towns population. We unpacked at the motel and went to eat at Applebees. We saw every chaser imaginable. I'm telling you, the place was packed. We ate and had good times talking about the day's events. Here are some photos from the day.

PHOTO #1 WELL DEVELOPED WALL CLOUD NEAR UTICA, KS
PHOTO #2 SAME AS ABOVE, ONLY ZOOMED IN
PHOTO #3 LOW CONTRAST TORNADO NORTH OF NESS CITY, KS
PHOTO #4 PHOTO OF ANOTHER STORM TO THE WEST